Butte semi-weekly miner. [volume] (Butte, Mont.) 1886-1890, 1887-03-19

BUTTE T MOI
Island Of sorrow! They have wrought
their viii upon thee! The only glory that
romans for thee 1t present il the fame Of
thy constancy and Of thine heroic .preser.
walton Of tbs true faith Of Jesus Christ.
But surely the Almighty will not be I'm.
mindful of his mercies forever. Surely,
my dear friends, he must have a glorious
future in store for the faithful Island oil
Saints. She has conferred countless bene
fits on many nations. and surely the bless
ings of the Most High must oneday be hers.
The infinite justice OF God will gra It her
yet q glorious deliverance from all the ills
that Cypress her to-day. In the darkest
hour of her affection she shall O be with.
out hope, and the bard Of Ireland only
gives utterance to the universal sentiment
Of the nation when he sings:
"The nations have fallen, but thou still art
our
Thy sun is but rising, when others are set;
And though slavery's cloud over thy morning
hath hung,
The full moon of freedom shall beam round
her yet.
Erin! o Erin! Though long in the rhade.
Thy star will shine out, when the proudest
shall fade"
But whatsoever may be the reward for
Ireland land may it be exceedingly great in
proportion to her u~nequalled chivalrous
fdelltyD it still cannot surpass the glory,
/ -ksnh che 1oriroa Yp0m hop o0nafo nov
in the faith of Christ, handed down
from age to age through q splendid line of
apostles, martyrs, confessors, holy men
and sanity women. 0, som and daughters
of Erin, be careful not to prove yourselves
unworthy descendants Of SO noble an an
cestry, but strive by the bravery and puri.
ty of your life and conduct to reflect credit
upon your heroic sires.
"A wise son." says the Holy Scripture,
lis his fathers glory"
And I tell you, Irishmen, it cannot be
we'll or wise, at this late day, to disparage
the religion of Ireland, to regard it as a
hindrance to her prosperity in any sense
wherein prosperity is desirable or honor
able. It cannot be well or wise to despise
the ministers of that holy religion and
lead others to despise them. l speak not
to cold materialists or Free Masons here
to-day. I speak to the scions of illus
trious confessors of the faith, to men who
have imbibed from infancy the traditions
of heavenly truth. I speak to men who
know that the Church is divine, the faith
divine. And l ask you: Is this the time
to entertain cold, unworthy suspicious OF
that Church which your fathers so loved
and priced that they preferred to die
rather than abandon it? The fercast part
of the struggle for the maintenance of the
faith in Ireland is now over. Heresy
seems tottering to it's fall, seeking to drag
down with it to the abyss even such
broken and distorted fragments of the
truth as still remain to it, and threatening
to involve in a total ruin the belief and
hopes of mankind. The entire religious
world is in a ferment, and it's now the i'm.
perative duty OF all who love God and are
loyal to truth and to the highest duty to
stand firm to their principles and to the
faith of Jesus Christ.
Will you listen at this time to the de-
ceiver who would ALLEVIATE you from your
duty by causing you to entertain suspic-
ions against you Holy Mother. the
Church? You cannot. misapprehend my
meaning. There is q deplorable spirit of
suspicion and fault-fnding abroad amongst
you which must be repressed, or else you
lose for yourselves and your posterity the
glory that your ancestors acquired for
you at every cost of blood and treasure.
1t is an unmanly spirit. 1t is an unchris-
tian spirit. And sooner thar Erin should
be freed from her shackles by the destruc-
ton OF our Catholic faith, and the dissolu-
ton of those ties Of affection. confidence
and reverence, which bind together in Ire
land more closely than in other lands the
priest and his faithful people; sooner than
that 1 say, my dear friends, I am sure that
every true Irishman of Christian belief and |
feeling would fervently exclaim: 'Wel-
come, chains and torments! Welcome,
everlasting slavery" You of the Irisl
race could have had wealth and home gov |
eminent and commerce and manufactures |
at any time during the past 300 years if
sires had consented to abandon the |
faith. But those heroic ones who went be- |
fore you. spurned the infamous proposal. |
They put into your hands, Irishmen-l
wherever your lot might be cast-the
honor of your beautiful isle, untarnished
by a single speck Of dishonor and shame!
''Semper ct Unique 6delis"-"always and
faithful'-was the inscription
on the flag of the Irish brigade in France.
and under that legend was inscribed a long
list OF glorious anne They we've. the
names of the victories that Irish valor had
for the eldest daughter of the
Church.
That same motto is indelibly inscribed
on Ireland's national escutcheon.
Bear it we'll in mind, my dear Irish friends,
Always aud everywhere faithful" You
iare not erase that motto from your
shield. Everywhere and always
faithful" Even the blessed boon of free.
ION and national prosperity, gained under
any other motto, were an accursed. mol.
uted thing.
Blessed be God! however, in the old and
isle all the signs of the time seem
20 indicate an approaching surcease OF
Her merciless tormentor is
10 longer the arbiter Of nations, no longer
he mistress OF the sea. as once she was.
Her dominion and influence are sensibly
declining. She dare not go to war to-day
With any frst-class power of the earth.
)isintegration OF her political fabric is
imminent, and before long England will
i've freedom to Ireland, and it may be,
perhaps, that the Irish people will proclaim
England, at last, as just as once she was
1reland's struggle is the longest and
lercest fight on the records of the worlds
history. All mankind acknowledge that
Irish nation has fought valiantly, and
hat God approves. The Irish people still
i've, they still display the same courage az
yer before. The heart of the Irish patriot